>It's not a great situation for local gear shops, who do provide additional>service through advice and letting you try on / handle the goods before>purchase - but this only goes so far and differences in price of 200-300%>strain the relationship.

Most stores, eg Hardware Lane, could hardly charge anything for "service". I have often walked out of certain shops that cater more and more for urban pretentiousness than outdoorsy types, and more often than not you know more than the junior casual sales staff. Go in, try on the shoes, make an offer based on the internet and go from there.
If more people challenge the ticket price then maybe things will change.

Not that I spend much time in gear stores, but I did venture into MDs in Little Bourke St a couple of months ago after they had apparently changed their floor layout. Did I just miss the gear, or has all climbing gear been removed from the store?
Canary in the coal mine?

On 14/05/2010 cruze wrote:>Not that I spend much time in gear stores, but I did venture into MDs in Little Bourke St a couple of months ago after they had apparently changed their floor layout. Did I just miss the gear, or has all climbing gear been removed from the store?

This topic is always one that generates a lot of posts and its one I am always interested in as I am 'in the industry' and am accurately aware of the AU and overseas pricing issues.

I don't begrudge any climbers buying overseas to get a better deal but I would encourage you to check locally (with the smaller climbing retailers not necessarily the big stores) before you do so as if possible i'm sure they would rather make an AU sale than have the $ go overseas.

On 14/05/2010 climbingfool wrote:>Getting anything shipped to Australia is ridiculously expensive. For every>dollar you spend you are looking at about $0.80 in shipping and associated>costs, then add on domestic shipping costs around australia! not quite>as bad, but pretty close.

If you scrounge around online you can save money on just about everything...

Last year I shipped the following snowboarding gear from the US; 3 snowboards (2 of them big boards over 160cm), 1 pair of boots, 2 jackets, 2 pair of pants, gloves, backpack and lots of assorted gear. All up approx AUS $3900 retail. It weighed just shy of 20kg and I payed Aus$270 to have it shipped from Salt Lake CIty to Melbourne via DHS.

On 14/05/2010 climbingfool wrote:>Getting anything shipped to Australia is ridiculously expensive. For every>dollar you spend you are looking at about $0.80 in shipping and associated>costs, then add on domestic shipping costs around australia! not quite>as bad, but pretty close.

Not at all the case with most climbing gear. I cannot speak for bouldering pads, but for cams, ropes, helmets, shoes, the shipping costs are cheap, you should try it. If you are being charged .80 to the dollar for shipping you are getting it in the shorts.

>Not at all the case with most climbing gear. I cannot speak for bouldering>pads, but for cams, ropes, helmets, shoes, the shipping costs are cheap,>you should try it. If you are being charged .80 to the dollar for shipping>you are getting it in the shorts.

Maybe you can find me some prices on $30k worth of climbing gear from overseas then.

On 14/05/2010 wombly wrote:>Time to unleash the pedant...>>"All couriers work on volumetric weight, not dead weight so although the>Phud only weighs 5 KG, it volumises out at 43 KG hence the high shipping>cost.">>volumetric weight??? why invent a ridiculous term when you could simply>refer to volume???

I suppose you would have to ask the couriers about that but that is a direct quote from Jenni at Alpkit and I have no reason to doubt her.

>I suppose you would have to ask the couriers about that but that is a>direct quote from Jenni at Alpkit and I have no reason to doubt her.

It is true, that is how it is done.

You have a box to ship and its actual weight is 4 kg.

Measure the box, l x w x h (m) and times that by 250, that is what the volumetric weight is. if this calc comes out as 6.5 kg, they will round it up and charge you 7 kg. if the volumetric calc comes out to 1 kg, they will charge you the actual weight of 4kg.

On 14/05/2010 climbingfool wrote:>>Maybe you can find me some prices on $30k worth of climbing gear from>overseas then.

I don't have to. I only need to ship a couple 10s of Kilograms once in a while. Kilograms of stuff I buy at US retail prices. Which sounds like the price you buy wholesale at. None of this matters, however.

My objection to your comments is solely that you are justifying and defending a broken retail system. You won't fix it by continuing to practice it in its current form.

I don't have any answers for you, but I don't need to. I can buy from the US and point out that the King has no cloths on.

On 14/05/2010 boulderingbadger wrote:>If you are after a crash pad head over to www.asana.com>>$240 US for the 4" inch foam pad incl shipping and you get to customise>the colours...>>great customer service too!

Asana ship pads to Australia for $45 US?

I'm sorry but I find this hard to believe, especially when they charge $30 US to ship to addresses in continental USA.